Introduction
The article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” by Amy Chua sets out to demonstrate that the parenting technique employed by Chinese mothers is superior to that used by Western Mothers. The author, Amy Chua, is a Chinese by birth and a mother to two daughters and is therefore in a position to tell how the Chinese parents up bring their children.
The views expressed by the author are not restricted to the Chinese setting as she has an American background and she can therefore compare and contrast both the Western and Chinese parenting styles. I disagree with the claims made by Chua that Chinese mothers are superior. In this paper I shall reinforce my position by demonstrating that the arguments proposed by Chua are mostly flawed.
Article Critique
In her article, Chua is guilty of faulty logic since she uses false cause in explaining the success of children raised by Chinese parents. Chua alludes that the superior performance by Chinese children is as a direct consequence of the constant pressure to excel by their mothers and the inferior performance by western children is as a result of the accommodative nature of their parents.
This argument is a presentation of false cause since it fails to take into consideration many other factors that make a contribution to the children’s academic performances and success in life.
The author does not make use of any expert opinions on the subject but rather relies on her own experiences as the basis of her assertions. To begin with, the author highlights the manner in which she raised her children and proceeds to give examples of how she had used coercion on her daughter to produce very favorable results.
From such examples, the author declares that the confidence is build through such practices. The author fails to reference any other authorities on the subject before making such claims. In the few instances that the author makes use of statistics to prove her point, she fails to indicate her sources. It might as well be assumed that the author is inventing this statistics to reinforce her argument that Chinese mothers are superior.
A major strength demonstrated by the author in her article is that she uses words that are vivid in her descriptions. The author reveals that the Chinese will call their child “stupid”, “worthless” or “a disgrace”. Such emotive words enable the reader to paint a mental image of the different kinds of upbringings that the Western mother and the Chinese mother have.
The author also takes care to enlighten the reader that she is using the term “Chinese mother” loosely and it is only a stereotype which may not necessarily apply to all Chinese mothers. Such disclaimers prevent the reader from dismissing the authors work as a generalization.
Conclusion
This paper set out to argue that the article by Amy Chua is flawed and can therefore not be deemed as a convincing work. The paper began by demonstrating that the author, Amy Chua, is indeed in a position of authority to write on the subject. However, the paper proceeded to show that the author failed to make use of authoritative sources to support her claims or indicate her sources.
This casts doubt on the argument and reduce the credibility of an otherwise nicely thought out article. From these discussions, it can be seen that the article could have been more powerful if the author had indicated her sources and relied on other authorities on the subject.